Historically, an engineer will design a golf club in way that seeks to optimize multiple properties of the finished club. The engineer will chose a shape and size for a club head based on aerodynamics, PGA rules, manufacturing capabilities, and consumer preferences. Within a club head, the engineer will design a mass distribution that provides an acceptable overall compromise of moment of inertia, center of gravity, and weight for the variety of customers who may purchase the club. Once the structure of the club head is designed, it will be finished with colors, surface treatments, logos, and trim in hopes that wide range of people will find the club head attractive. Sometimes a golf company will offer a club in two or a few different finishes and trim levels, in hopes of appealing to more golfers.
Because a number of properties of a club head are influenced by mass distribution and materials, designing a golf club has traditionally been a one-size-fits-all exercise. While some clubs are offered with adjustable weight members or shafts, many properties such as mass distribution, color, aerodynamics, and turf interaction reflect a lowest-common-denominator design paradigm. To offer consumers variety in these properties, golf companies generally must design an entirely new club.